Well I can at least take solace that Tzolkin will win the 2013 game of the year award to end the two year run of ameritrash titles taking the title.

Did you just call Dominant Species "Ameritrash"? It's a freaking worker placement game bro!

I'll concede to calling it a hybrid maybe, but it has massive amounts of luck and direct conflict. You don't have to roll dice to be an ameritrash game. Just because it uses a mechanic that is often associated with euro games doesn't make it a euro.

Well I can at least take solace that Tzolkin will win the 2013 game of the year award to end the two year run of ameritrash titles taking the title.

Did you just call Dominant Species "Ameritrash"? It's a freaking worker placement game bro!

I'll concede to calling it a hybrid maybe, but it has massive amounts of luck and direct conflict. You don't have to roll dice to be an ameritrash game. Just because it uses a mechanic that is often associated with euro games doesn't make it a euro.

And wooden cubes, and turn order, and victory points, and an abstracted theme...etc.

Plenty of Euro games have massive amounts of luck (Thebes for instance). Plenty of Euro games have direct conflict (any area control Euro). Those two things do not an ameritrash game make.

Now, clearly it's not a typical "trading in the Mediterranean" Euro, but it's filled with Euro mechanics and just happens to have a couple of things that aren't necessarily commonly found in Euro games but aren't unheard of either.

Reiterating in this thread that that Valley Games used Kickstarter to contact the 2000 odd backers of the game (i.e. those that have purchased the commercial version) and asked them to consider casting a vote for it, which I don't think is fair. This award should have gone to one of the REAL print and play's that were in the running instead of having the voting skewed favourably towards DDD. I fully expected DDD to take the award (but not on merit) and BSG Express to take second place, but it really should be BSG Express that has the top spot.

Perhaps there should be a rule that prohibits games that have had a commercial release being entered into the print and play category?

Massive amounts of luck and direct conflict, eh?Who knew that Settlers is ameritrash?!?

You sir, just won the Internet. Congratulations.

JoffW wrote:

Perhaps there should be a rule that prohibits games that have had a commercial release being entered into the print and play category?

I fully agree with this sentiment. In all honestly, any "Vote for me" ideals should be absent from a competition like this (and disqualification considered) unless they are posted by the fans themselves. This isn't a high school student council race after all. What's next, campaign advertisements and flyers cluttering BGG banners?

On a different note, I was secretly hoping 1989: Dawn of Freedom would win the 2-player award, but I guess it simply isn't that widely played. Amazing game, though - fully on a par with Twilight Struggle, albeit with quite a different feel.

I wish to provide legendary service to the RPG community to help grow our hobby and enrich the lives of gamers everywhere.

Aldie forgot to mention that there is also a microbadge associated with this award. If you are part of a winning team (either designer, production staff, publisher, etc) for a Golden Geek winning entry, you are entitled to the coveted 2012 Golden Geek microbadge:

2012 Golden Geek Winner

If you are eligible, just geekmail me and I'll get the microbadge awarded.

Only one I disagree with is Kingdom Builder. SDJ and best abstract? I suppose boredom on the scale of watching paint dry could be considered abstract. Oh well, it's a public vote. I don't have to agree with it, but I can be confused by it.

Was also half expecting Lords of Waterderp to appear on the list due to its sudden popularity. Still looking forward to trying that out.

There must have been a moment at the beginning, where we could have said no. Somehow we missed it. Well, we'll know better next time.

All the Kingdom Builder backlash is interesting, because many of the negative things I've read about the game were from people who were looking for more theme like more standard euros. So when I teach the game I tell people the game is "at its heart, an abstract" with a medieval thematic atmosphere/window dressing. But people won't really feel like they are conquering kingdoms or anything.

So while I agree it's not a pure abstract, it's a very abstract game. The other thing is that BGG is generally not populated by fans of abstract games (just look at the rankings of Chess), so any of the true abstracts would not get many votes at all just because people haven't even played them. So it stands to reason KB got many votes, and I'm glad people have realized that it's more abstract than most of its euro brethren, because that's its niche. Great game and congrats on its win.

All the Kingdom Builder backlash is interesting, because many of the negative things I've read about the game were from people who were looking for more theme like more standard euros.

Most of the complaints I recall hearing about Kingdom Builder were complaints about the luck of the draw for your card each turn.

Which (coincidentally) makes it not really an abstract game in the sense of "like Chess or Go".

Personally I like playing a luckless variant of KB, where you simply choose your terrain type each turn. The luckless variant could be worthy of the "best abstract" award... but I doubt most players/voters have tried it that way.

I don't see where people think of Eclipse as an ameritrash game. To me, ameritrash involves sending hordes of armies against each other and rolling dice all game.

Ships are valuable in eclipse, and you don't just go shooting everything you can see. So much more than fighting in this game. I've considered rating it a 10, as it's on the same level of fun as my beloved Wallenstein. Another game where people fight, but sparingly.